Japanese Listening to Phone Menus: IVR, Delivery Calls and Reaching a Person

What you will hear, and in what order

An automated line almost always runs in the same order. It opens by thanking you for calling and naming the company. Next comes the purpose sentence: to connect you to the right department, please choose from the following. Then the numbered options, each one a description followed by a number. Finally, a repeat offer and, on many systems, the transfer to a person.

Knowing the order means you can relax through the opening. Save your attention for the moment the voice says tsugi no naka kara, from the following, or o-erabi kudasai, please choose. That is the signal that options are starting.

The option pattern: description first, number last

The single most important pattern is the shape of an option. In English, menus say press one for deliveries. Japanese menus reverse the order: the description comes first, then wa, then the number. Haitatsu ni kansuru o-toiawase wa, ichi o oshite kudasai: for enquiries about deliveries, press one. Listen for the description, and when you hear the one you want, the number is about to follow.

Descriptions use a few formal nouns joined with ni kansuru, concerning, or no kata wa, for those who. O-toiawase is an enquiry, o-mōshikomi is an application, henkō is a change, kaiyaku is a cancellation, and kakunin is a confirmation. The instruction verb is nearly always oshite kudasai, press, occasionally nyūryoku shite kudasai, enter, for longer numbers.

Numbers are read as ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyū, zero. The system never uses shi or shichi, because they are easy to mishear.

Delivery notifications

Delivery calls and messages are the automated Japanese most residents meet first. After a missed parcel, the slip in your letterbox, the fuzai renraku hyō, gives a number, and the line will ask for the tracking number, the redelivery date and a time window. The recorded voice reads the windows in fixed forms: gozenchū, morning; jūyoji kara jūrokuji, fourteen to sixteen hundred hours; and so on. It then confirms what you entered and asks you to press one if correct.

Some companies call you rather than the other way round, with a recorded message that gives an expected time window and asks you to press a key to confirm. Exactly how each company works changes over time, so treat the slip in your letterbox as the authority.

Vocabulary to pre-learn

The words below appear on almost every automated line. Many are formal compounds you might never say, but you only need to recognise them. Read the table aloud twice, then cover the meaning column and test yourself.

Bank lines add words for balances, zandaka, and transfers, furikomi. Utility lines add hikkoshi, moving house, and shiharai, payment, for the options about starting, stopping or paying for service.

Bank and utility lines

Bank and utility menus have one extra feature: they ask you to enter identifying numbers before you reach anything useful. A bank line may ask for your account number and PIN by keypad, and a utility line for the o-kyakusama bangō printed on your bill. The instruction is nyūryoku shite kudasai, please enter, and the voice will often specify the number of digits with keta.

Utility lines also route by situation. Moving house, starting or stopping service, a power cut, and a gas smell each have their own option, and the gas company's emergency option usually comes first and is worth learning by heart. Bank lines route by product: accounts, cards, loans, and lost or stolen cards.

Why the recordings are harder than they sound

The voice is slow and clear, so why do learners struggle? Three reasons. First, memory load: you hear five options before you can act, and by option four you have forgotten option one. Second, formality: the vocabulary is keigo and Sino-Japanese, so ordinary conversational listening does not help; o-toiawase and tantōsha simply have to be learned. Third, there is no negotiation. A person will rephrase when you hesitate; a recording just loops, and each loop feels like pressure.

The drill below addresses all three problems in order.

• Step one: find a company's phone menu that is also written on its website, and read the options before you call
• Step two: call, listen to the whole menu once without pressing anything, and write one noun per option
• Step three: let it repeat, and this time write the number next to each noun
• Step four: hang up, then say the whole menu aloud from your notes, description first and number last
• Step five: call again and press your option within two seconds of hearing it
• Step six: practise reading your own phone number and a twelve-digit tracking number aloud with pauses
• Step seven: role-play the handover to a person with your AI Sensei, starting from the operator's greeting

Choose a low-stakes line for the first attempts, such as a delivery company or a store's information line. Do not practise on emergency numbers.

Reaching a person

When the menu does not fit your need, or when the options are too confusing, the goal is a human. Listen for operētā, tantōsha or kakari no mono, a member of staff, in the last option, and for the number zero. If the system uses voice recognition, which is increasingly common, saying operētā clearly, or the phrase tantōsha ni tsunaide kudasai, connect me to the person in charge, may work. If nothing works, staying silent through two loops often triggers a transfer.

Once a person answers, the phrases below get you started. Say that your Japanese is limited if you like; staff will slow down and simplify.

When something goes wrong

The common failures are pressing the wrong number, entering a number with the wrong count of digits, and being cut off because the line is outside its uketsuke jikan, opening hours. For a wrong option, most menus let you press a key to go back, often the asterisk, or you can simply hang up and redial; nothing is lost. For a digit error, the voice will say the entry could not be confirmed and ask you to re-enter, so listen for the count in keta and enter slowly.

If the line says it is closed, it will state the hours, usually as heijitsu, weekdays, and a range with kara and made. Write the hours down; the same sentence will play tomorrow. If the menu loops without ever offering a person, look for a chat or web form instead.